The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-06-11

John Palmer, VINO uieu years ago. anu oe
sides cultivating his rented place managed to
do some breaking on his own land. He
bought asmsll frame house in South Ottawa
in the fall of lS43, and moved II in wagons
and got his family into 1t in the commence
ment Of winter. lie fenced half Of his 80
ceres in 1914, and raised the first crop on
his own premises that year. Al .he next
and sale, two or three years after, he
bought another so acre tract, and also pur
chased lands elsewhere in the county, 1000
,cres, which he has disposed Of so as to give
his children each fair pa,rimony.
EARLY NEIGHBoRs.
Mr. Lewis's first neighbors in Fall River
we're william Gentleman and Ambrose Trum
bo. Across the prairie four miles, at Covel
Creek, was Mr.. Ebersol. The old Ford fam,
lily lived at Hickory Point, and Afterwards
Mr. John Powers moved in between Trum.
bo's and Ford's. Reedsr Galloway lived at
the town line of Brookfeld; farther along
lived Darius Reed. Standing at MIR. Lewis s
door, looking in semi.circle from Hickory
Point, to the Ebersol grove, from nearly east
to southwest, there stretched broad ex
panse of apparently boundless wild prairie.
Not house nor tree diversified the land
scape. In summer a waving sea Of tall
grass, ornamented with prcfusion Of flow
ers, stretching away TO beyond the bounds
Of vision; in winter q dreary interminable
expanse of snow, or, in autumn, after q
prairie fire, a blackened plain of gloomy
desoation. Wolves in packs howled con-
certs to other wolves, not only in the night,
but in the daytime; and the cowardly mau
rauders, made fierce by hunger, not unfre
uuently visited the cabins and bore of pigs
and poultry. Deer in droves gracefully
bounded past the house to the prairies, in
fall and winter mornings to feed on the sec.
ond crop of tender grass under the snow
about the ponds, returning in the evening to
sleep in the shelter of the trees in the rs-
vines. Prairie chickens in countless num-
hers IN many flocks, when the snow covered
the ground and the air was sharp and crisp,
in bright winter mornings, would line the
branches of the trees and make the woods
vocal with their quaint cackling; or, in the
spring the males of the flocks would per-
form their curious love dances and utter
their solemn notes of courtship. Their
droning cries, sounding like "boo- woo.woo,'
were ever welcome harbingers OF spring.
POLITICAL INCIDENTS.
County Organizatlon was adopted IN looo,
and Mr.. Lewis became one of the first super
visors of Fall River, which he held without
interruption for many years, save when, in
1855, he was elected county treasurer, which
office he held until 1859; and in 1878 he was
chosen state senator, which responsible and
honorable post he held four years. He was
chairman of the board most of his time
while one of its members, and usually chair
man of the finance committee. In 1857 and
prior, county orders had been "going beg.
ing" at so cents on a dollar, Mr.. Lewis
and Wells Wait concluded it would do to fund
the county debt and thus bring up orders to
par. This was accomplished mainly by the
persistent efforts of Mr.. Lewis, who never
despairet nor lessened his energetic efforts,
though at first vigorously opposed, till he
succeeded.
THE DRAFT.
During his term as supervisor, in the
gloomy period of the civil war, when draft
ng became necessary to fill the quota from
the towns, to fill up the states demand upon
each county, Supervisor Lewis was active
and efficient in discharging a double duty
that of securing acceptable recruits and al
the same time causing the burden of the
draft to fall as lightly and as equally as pos
sible upon the citizens of his town. To dc
this he had to make frequent visits to Joliet
military Headquarters for this district. He
handled all the funds for his town, both
from voluntary sources and from the county
vet he discharged those duties, rs well as
the financial trusts reposed in him as county
treasurer for two terms, with scrupulous and
exact fidelity. So, too, while senator, he
was always in his seat, never neglecting the
interests of his constituents, but always alert
and faithful.
DEATH OF THEIR DARLING.
| No one reaches the age of half century
without having experienced some great die
appointment, some bitter regret or poignant
sorrow. Some pail of gloom is allotted te
every one, sooner or later, and that of THU
excellent family was the death Of their only
daughter, Anna, the light of their eyes anC
the idol of their hearts. She had reached
the age of nine years, and the sweetness o
infancy had begun to merge into the bloom
and loneliness of girlhood. The character
her mind WAS forming, eyincing intelligence
far beyond her years; and as she had grown
in stature, so had she expanded as a rosebud
Just bursting out into its perfection OF form
coloring and perfume. Her character wa
trustful and sweet, her disposition gentle